Notebook

Phooey to god and country, unspoiled competition, goodwill andthe rest of it. The Ryder Cup went strictly commercial last weekwhen David Duval loudly complained that the players are gettingstiffed by one of golf's rainmaker events, and his grousing wasmet with a chorus of amens and hallelujahs from teammates LeeJanzen, Mark O'Meara and Tiger Woods. "A lot of money is beinggenerated, and players and captains are the only ones notgetting paid," said Duval, who has never played in a Ryder Cup.

An inconsequential friendly when it began in 1927, the Cup hasbecome big business. NBC paid $13 million for the televisionrights to the upcoming matches at the Country Club in Brookline,Mass., Sept. 24-26, and the PGA of America will net a reported$23 million--a figure the PGA will neither confirm nor deny.Duval warned that players might soon skip the event if theydon't begin to receive more than their current $5,000 stipend.At last week's Canon Greater Hartford Open at the TPC at RiverHighlands in Cromwell, Conn., Duval denied threatening toboycott, but his riffing had already polarized sentiment on bothsides of the debate. Lanny Wadkins, the 1995 U.S. captain, spokefor the old school when he expressed surprise that pride wasn'tenough anymore. "I think some guys who are concerned [aboutmoney] don't understand what the Ryder Cup is," he said. "Maybeif they had been paying more attention to their games the lastcouple of Cups, they wouldn't have lost."

Ryder Cup economics are simple. Like the NCAA men's basketballtournament, the Cup funds other, less celebrated programs. ThePGA, a nonprofit organization, will allocate $12.5 million ofthe take next month to its Ryder Cup Outreach Program, whichfunds opportunities for minorities and juniors, among othercauses. The PGA also runs money losers like the PGA Cup matches.As Davis Love III said last week, "There's not one player whohasn't been helped by the PGA of America."

The PGA pays the PGA Tour 20% of the Ryder Cup's TV rightsfees--roughly $2.5 million--and that, too, helps the players.Those funds are allocated to purses and to player-retirementplans.

Right or wrong, Duval's defiance may spawn a bigger controversy.How much does the U.S. Open make, and how does the purse stackup to gross revenue? "You're going to continue to have problemslike this," says Leonard Decof, a lawyer for the Tour PlayersAssociation. "Golf is a big business. It's getting bigger. Theplayers are going to wake up and realize that people areprofiting from their services, but in some cases it's everybodybut them."

LPGA's Executive PrivilegeHIGH OFFICE, LOW SCORES

Cindy McCurdy isn't being paid to be the president of the LPGA,but she is making money while on the job. Despite having tospend 15 to 20 hours a week on tour business, McCurdy is havingthe best season of her 11-year career. "There's no doubt thatbeing president is a good-luck charm," says McCurdy, whose best'99 finish has been a second in the Wegmans RochesterInternational, worth $93,093. She's 19th on the money list, with$252,779. Before this year McCurdy's best season was in '97,when she was 34th in earnings.

McCurdy is far from the first LPGA player to reap rewards in herpresidency. During her two years in office, in 1967 and '68,Kathy Whitworth won 18 times and was the leading money winnerand the player of the year both seasons. In addition to winning11 titles in '76 and '77, when she was president, Judy Rankinwas the player of the year, had the lowest scoring average andtopped the money list in both years. Since then, Judy Dickinson(1990-92), Elaine Crosby (1994) and Michelle Estill (1998) havealso had their best years during their terms as president.

"At first I thought it was just a myth," says McCurdy, "but nowI'm a believer." --Tom Hanson

Chris Jenkins, Little RockJenkins, 29, an insurance broker, won the Arkansas AmateurStroke Play with a two-over 215 at Paradise Valley Athletic Clubin Fayetteville. A scratch golfer, Jenkins was the Arkansas GolfAssociation's amateur player of the year in 1998 and won theArkansas Open in '97.

Tom Johnson, Fair Oaks, Calif.Tom, 17, won his second straight Northern California GolfAssociation junior championship, becoming the first boy to winconsecutive NCGA titles since Eddie Fry won three in a row, from1941 to '43. Last week Tom reached the round of 16 at the U.S.Junior Amateur in York, Pa.

Gregg Kohansky, New York CityKohansky, 26, a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, madetwo aces in six days on the 160-yard 7th hole at the MuttontownClub in East Norwich, N.Y. A former captain of the Yale golfteam, Kohansky used a seven-iron for the first ace, his firstever, and a six-iron for the second.

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Threesomes

What do these players have in common?

--Mark Calcavecchia--Brad Fabel--Brent Geiberger

They made holes in one last week at the Greater Hartford Open,the only Tour event this year other than last January's Bob HopeChrysler Classic in which three players have made aces.

Feedback

Were the course conditions at Carnoustie unfair?

Yes 47%No 53%

--Based on 875 responses to our informal survey

Next question: Should the pros be paid to play in the Ryder Cup?Vote at golfplus.cnnsi.com

Numbers

Here are the current U.S. Ryder Cup standings--the top 10automatically qualify for the team--and where the players stoodat the end of the 1998 season.